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Five

(5) Clearly, I was wrong about Jordan Peele's "Us." The reviews have been over the moon. I believe I should stop making predictions. I'm reminded of the time I saw a season-one episode of Ellen's day-time talk show and thought: Well, *that* won't last.

(4) Even Julianne Moore can be fired. She has revealed that my hero--Nicole Holofcener--dismissed her from an early version of "Can You Ever Forgive Me." Dismissed her! This raises several questions. Who the hell does Holofcener think she is? Has Ms. Moore deliberately calculated an end for Holofcener's career (because when someone as beloved and diplomatic as Moore shovels some dirt on you, things can't be good)? And did Holofcener consider her muse--Catherine Keener--for the Moore role? What is going on with Keener and Holofcener these days?

(3) Do you know what is intensely irritating? It's Keri Russell's behavior in front of the press. Russell is now starring in an off-Broadway production of "Burn This." (Frank Rich called the text terminally boring when "Burn This" first arrived in New York, years ago, but that hasn't stopped the play from becoming a classic, apparently.) Over and over, in interviews, Keri Russell seems so put-upon. "I say no to all projects." "He said, here's where the threesome will be filmed, and I told my assistant, I need a beer within fifteen minutes, or this is NOT happening." Give it a rest, Keri Russell. Also, I secretly think that "The Americans" is painfully, dreadfully slow.

(2) There's a Howard Ashman Renaissance happening. We have a live-action movie version of "Aladdin," a Papermill Playhouse revival of "Beauty and the Beast," and also at some point a live-action "Little Mermaid"? I think the secret to Ashman's success--and he's a great book-writer, in addition to being a sterling lyricist--is the "largeness" of his characters. The eccentric inventor, the brooding Beast, the drag-queen sea witch, the lascivious candlestick...The list goes on. These people/creatures seem alive. They are fresher and weirder than the Disney creatures that came later; I wince when I have to spend time with Timon and Pumba. How far Disney fell, how quickly!

(1) Three cheers for one of the most perceptive paragraphs I have ever read in the NYT, from this weekend, in praise of Janet Malcolm:

Seeing things differently is the essence of what sets Malcolm apart. Few writers pay attention with the precision, acuity and patience she has exhibited during her career of telling stories about various rank weeds: the faces people show the world. Her work was hybrid before hybrid was a thing: It balances her skills as a reporter (avid, nosy attention) with those of a scholar (writing about anything, it’s clear she’s read everything), a literary critic (tuned to how language, written or spoken, foregrounds its maker’s gifts and faults) and, above all, a storyteller. She is uncommonly concerned with finding a form that delivers the force of the story she is telling.

Amen. Smart and elegant--and it has the advantage of also being true! THAT is how you write criticism.


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